Henry Okonkwo
A 43-year-old self-acclaimed evangelical pastor has landed himself into trouble.
Promise Nkanga, the senior pastor of the Tongue of Fire Harvest International Ministry at Dele Adegboye Street in Yetunde Brown area of Ifako, Lagos metropolis, was accused of swindling women in search of counseling and prayers for husbands.
Nkanga was last Monday arrested by the men of Oworo police station after one of his victims summoned courage to file a compliant against him, alleging that he defrauded her to the tune of N850, 000 after proposing to marry her.
The victim (names withheld on request) while narrating her ordeal told Sunday Sun that her affair with Nkanga started around May last year. She said that it all started when her friend took her to meet Nkanga for counseling and prayer at his church.
The lady, a single mother of one, said that she was confused after losing contact with the father of her child for over two years.
She said that she needed some counselling on how to move on with her life. It was at that juncture, she was convinced by her friend to go and see Pastor Nkanga for prayers.
“When I got to his church that fateful day. He told me to forget about the father of my child, that he is not the one God ordained for me. So, I left there with a very heavy heart. And made up my mind to move on with life,” she said.
Barely two days after their conversation, she got a strange text message from the pastor, hinting her that the ‘holy spirit’ has disclosed to him that she was to be his wife, and that she must never refuse the divine injunctions of the ‘holy spirit’.
“I felt offended when he started sending text messages and calling me. I suspected he was about to take advantage of my situation. But he insisted that his desire to marry me was a divine injunction on him by the ‘holy spirit’. So, I told him to give me sometime to think about it,” she said.
She said that she went further to probe Nkanga, who also is a single father of two children – a nine-year-old son and five-year-old daughter – about his past affairs that brought his children.
“He told me that the children came from a woman he dated over two years ago. He said the woman was an adulterer and that they weren’t legally married, they had to go their separate ways.
“Then one Sunday, he came to my house saying he wants us to pray and seek guidance of the ‘holy spirit’. After praying, he suddenly inserted an engagement ring in my finger. It was at that point I lost total control of myself,” she narrated.
According to her, the excitement of having an engagement ring dazzled her, which made her lose her mind like she was under a spell.
She henceforth became dimwitted and gullible, swallowing all that Nkanga said hook, line and sinker.
In May, their romance gained full steam as they prepared for marriage. “In July, I gave him N400, 000 to start wedding plans and securing an accommodation at Ikorodu for us. But two weeks later, he started telling me that his aged father is ill and that he wants to use the money to treat him. I didn’t object,” she said.
Not done with his antics, Nkanga on September came up to tell her of another apartment at Ikorodu that would cost N300, 000, which she gave to him.
But she said that Nkanga again came with another story saying that the owners of the house have given it out before she could raise the rent. Nkanga never refunded the money to her rather he used about N100, 000 from it for his personal use.
In December, she said that Nkanga took her to his hometown in Akwa-Ibom State to formally introduce her to his family.
“The family all welcomed me with open arms and even prayed for me,” she said.
That all now seem like a gimmick because, according to her, in January Nkanga again requested another sum for another rent for a house that he has found in Ikorodu.
“He collected another N150, 000 from for the rent. It was at that point I began to ask him why he keeps coming to me to collect money for rent, and why he can’t even strive to raise at least part of the money. But he got angry and told me that at his place it is a taboo for women to query their men. He took the money from me and paid for the house in his name.
“After using my money to pay the rent, his attitude changed. He started being nasty to me, and making plans to move into the house alone. That was when I understood that he is a fraudster.
“On February, I came to his house to ask him why his attitude has suddenly changed towards me. It was then he told me that members of his church are complaining that I’m too proud and do not rapport well with them. He also told me that his father and relations have ordered him not to marry me again, and that even his uncle based in Lagos said that our marriage would be over his dead body,” she said.
This news, she said, broke her heart as she wept bitterly.
“I realized that I’ve been used, duped and dumped by a fake pastor. He looked me in the eyes and told me his plans to move into the house he rented with my money, my sweat,” she lamented.
We had sex only once – Pastor Promise:
Stating his own side of the story, Nkanga admitted that he had a serious relationship with the lady.
He disclosed that he stopped from marrying her when one of his uncles living at Okokomaiko, Lagos, declined giving his backing to the union. He also denied receiving more than N450, 000 from her now estranged lover.
“We became lovers after her friend introduced her to me. I wanted to marry her and took only N450, 000 from her as some support to start preparation for our marriage. But my father fell ill, he had appendicitis, and I used part of that money to treat him. We were at verge of marriage when my uncle said he wouldn’t support my marriage,” Nkanga said.
He, however, went sanctimonious when Sunday Sun probed whether they were having sex during their more than nine months of courtship.
“Yes, I had sex with her, but it was only one time throughout the over nine months we dated,” he said, but his lover girl faulted his claim.
Hear her: “He is a big liar. There was consistent intimacy in the affair. And he had his way with me more than twice.”
And she also disclosed that one of his members told her that Nkanga was still married to his former wife.
“It was on one Sunday, I was feeling so sad at my relationship with Nkanga. Then one of his members told me that Nkanga did a court wedding with his estranged wife. And that they are still legally married because they haven’t divorced officially,” she said.
But when asked Nkanga insisted that his first marriage crashed over two years ago after his wife was allegedly committing adultery.
Those who know Nkanga in the neighbourhood
One of Nkanga’s neighbours told Sunday Sun that “I have lived with him for more than five years now. And I can vouch that even as he calls himself a pastor, he is not a straightforward man. He was verbally and physically abusing the wife when she was with him. At a point she got seriously ill and then packed out of his house.”
Sunday Sun gathered from residents that Nkanga has become notorious in the neighbourhood for duping and dumping desperate ladies, using marriage proposal as a hook.
They said that they noticed that each time Nkanga finishes tricking and extorting a woman, he goes into hiding from police for some time, and after a while he resurfaces with another woman that has fallen prey to his trick.
“Any woman that comes to Nkanga for prayers for a life partner is setting herself up to be deceived by the fake pastor. We have gotten used to him coming home with different women. He first pretends to pray for them, he would them tell them God had mandated that they must marry him, after which he dupes and dumps them.”